"The Little Fwend, the name of which you will hate or love, is one of the most well-conceived, well-packaged, well-made audio accessories I have encountered. I recommend it without hesitation”

Art Dudley, Stereophile Magazine, Listening #170

ABOUT

We are two kinds. The other kind are fine with the sound from a delicate stylus trapped in the dark inner circle of a vinyl record. Once upon a time in Japan, there was a device that safely took care of business. This device is long gone, disappeared into the twilight of the black market. We wondered. Why? It was not an aesthetic masterpiece, but the mechanics functioned well.

2014. Inspired by this servant of the peaceful mind, we set out on a journey to design an automatic tonearm lifter that filled the void - and then some. Little Fwend is the automatic tonearm lifter that has one mission. It lifts the tonearm up at the inevitable end of a vinyl record. It does it safely. It does it smoothly. It does it looking good.

This is The End, My Only Fwend the End.

Marius & Lasse

1. Lifting Mechanism: Safe. Smooth. Silent. Those were the most important aspects of the design. We experimented a lot finding the right relationship between spring compression force, travel, dampening and friction. Little Fwend lifts the tonearm smooth and controlled with minimum use of force (and a little help from Newtons fwends). Little Fwend can lift tonearms with cartridges set up to 8 grams VTF.

Release Antenna: High carbon steel Roslau piano wire. Very low lateral force is required to release the mechanism. The cantilever will love to meet such low resistance.

2. Rubber Beam. Neoprene rubber. The high friction rubber padding lets the tonearm rest safely and stable even with the level a few degrees off both horizontally and vertically. If you´ve read this far, you´re probably the level type of audiophile.

Height Ranges. Little Fwend comes in two different sizes, Low and High. The Low model can be used under tonearms with clearance between the underside of the arm wand and the mounting surface as low as 32mm, up to 49mm. the High model from 49mm, up to 82mm. Height is adjusted by a set screw in the base. The appropriate hex key is enclosed. Please measure the distance from mounting/plinth surface up to the underside of tonearm wand. Take the measurement when the tonearm has correct VTA and the needle is in the groove. Subtract approx. 1mm from this distance, to make sure there will be safe clearance between the rubber beam and the moving tonearm.

3. Mounting Platform. 0.3mm mild steel disc with adhesive backing. Little Fwend is fastened to the platform through magnetic force. The axially magnetized N52-magnet in the base is strong enough to keep Little Fwend in place, but weak enough to easily reorient the trigger antenna for the various run-out groove areas. Little Fwend is readjusted in seconds. The diametrical magnetic field is very low and will not affect magnetic metals in the radius of the base.